


Enclosed With a Kiss

by LadyKnightOfHollyrose



Category: Free!
Genre: Fluff, Friendship, Future Fic, Introspection, Letters, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, MakoRin Week, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-24
Updated: 2014-12-24
Packaged: 2018-03-03 07:51:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2843645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyKnightOfHollyrose/pseuds/LadyKnightOfHollyrose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steaming mug full of coffee in hand, Rin settles behind his laptop after a long day of classes and swim practice. The pleasant ache of well stretched muscles has him wriggling for a moment as he gets comfortable.</p><p>Then he flips the screen up so that he can check his email.</p><p>His entire face lights up when he sees that, like clockwork, there’s a missive from one Tachibana Makoto.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Enclosed With a Kiss

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt 'Letters' for MakoRin week on tumblr

Steaming mug full of coffee in hand, Rin settles behind his laptop after a long day of classes and swim practice. The pleasant ache of well stretched muscles has him wriggling for a moment as he gets comfortable.

Then he flips the screen up so that he can check his email.

His entire face lights up when he sees that, like clockwork, there’s a missive from one Tachibana Makoto.

It doesn’t matter that Makoto has been sending him emails, texts, and even letters back in the day, for many years - this is nothing new. But seeing his name pop up in his inbox -  spotting his handwriting on the front of an envelope - has the same affect on him as it did the first time.

It’s a memory that is still fresh in his mind, the fluttering in his stomach and the  _lightness_  in his heart a sensation that still occurs often enough that it doesn’t take much to recall. 

Rin remembers.

He remembers Lori handing him the first envelope in his second week in the strange new country; remembers how reading the letter inside had made him feel a little less alone and a little less out of his depth. Because even though he wasn’t quite the dependable young man he’d become in high school yet, Makoto has  _always_  had a way of bringing comfort and reassurance to him.

When he thinks back on it now, that feeling of warmth and familiarity is pretty synonymous to ‘home’.

Rin had been keen to reply - he was in a whole different country, after all, a whole different  _continent_. He had so many things to tell Makoto, about how the beaches seemed strange in a way, comforting in how the sun melting into the horizon was the same in any part of the world but still never really felt quite as it had in Iwatobi. He wanted to tell him about his classes, about Lori and Russell and  _Winnie_.

He also wanted to tell him about how hard it was to communicate, the language barrier difficult to overcome even when his English had been so much better than his peers back in Japan. He wanted to tell him about his first practice; his first time diving into an Australian pool and his first race after landing.

He wanted to tell him how lonely it was, chasing the dream.

Rin remembers sitting at the small desk set up in his room in much the same way as he hunches over his laptop now, pen spinning restlessly between his fingers, his foot tapping as he grasped for the right words.

Each sentence felt like a battle, trying to find a delicate balance between including the things he wanted to say and attempting to look cool and not  _worry_ his friends back home. 

He’d experience new things every day and want to include them, his letter growing longer as he tried to cram everything into the same message.

It wasn’t until Winnie came bounding into his room one morning a month later, barrelling into Rin with another letter from Makoto, that he realised that he hadn’t actually sent anything back to his friend.

He figured he’d make up for it by being  _extra_ detailed and by bringing Makoto up to speed in the meantime.

The letter never got sent, and the longer Rin went without replying the guiltier and more awkward Rin felt about it. After his brief trip home and his disastereous meeting with Haru, he hadn’t particularly felt like staying in touch.

And still Makoto had sent his letters without expecting reciprocation.

And still Rin had read each one, treasuring each word even as he tried to distance himself.

These days, he has less trouble putting pen to paper - or fingers to keyboard as the case may be - but still, he hesitates as he goes to reply.

It’s not that he still feels  _estranged_. Which, where Makoto is concerned, would be quite difficult anyway in how one sided it’d be in the face of Makoto’s tolerance, acceptance and unwavering kindness. Rin knows Makoto well enough not to put him up on a pedestal; he knows his flaws, his niggling doubts and insecurities, knows that as patient as he is Makoto isn’t perfect. But he’s become comfortable in knowing that despite his less than stellar behaviour in the past, Makoto isn’t likely to take offence now.

It’s also not that he doesn’t know where to start.

They’ve been avid texting buddies since reconciling in high school (because Makoto is unable to resist the pull that his camera has over him whenever he spots a cat, and Rin can’t help but indulge and shamelessly enable him) and still catch up fairly regularly. Most major events are reported to each other immediately thanks to modern technology.

It’s not even the warmth that spreads through his cheeks, the slight tingle in the tips of his fingers or the involuntary smile that pulls at his lips that stalls him. He’s well aware of the cause of it by now; has come to terms with the fact that  _most_  things about Makoto are likely to affect him in the same way and fully come to terms with the fact that actually, Makoto has been starring in his rather sappy musings for  _quite_  a while now.

Rin takes a long sip of coffee, his free hand tapping on the side of the desk as he thinks. He glances down at the time, biting his lip.

Then he slides the laptop shut and reaches for his phone.

After all, why wait for the back and forth of sending and receiving emails when he could just  _talk_  to Makoto now?

Rin would  _much_  rather hear his voice, after all.

He dials, waiting impatiently as he counts each ring, and bites back a grin when he hears the jangle of keys being juggled when it’s answered.

"Rin!" He can hear the delighted smile in Makoto’s voice as he shoves through the door of his apartment.

"Hey," Rin says, stomach fluttering slightly, his eyes lighting up. 

Even with 7822 kilometres between them, it feels like coming home.

**Author's Note:**

> The endings not as smooth as I would have liked it to be, but then again I didn’t even think I was going to be able to write today with how rough my evening’s been so that’s an achievement in itself.
> 
> 7822 kilometres is apparently the distance between Sydney and Tokyo according to google :3 And the title is from Aaliyah’s Four Page Letter because I was feeling nostalgic XD


End file.
